The Wolf of Wall Street, Jordan Belfort in an Exclusive Interview with The Financial Press on working with Leonardo Dicaprio and Martin Scorsese

Vancouver, BC / ACCESSWIRE / April 23, 2014 / Live and In Person, Jordan Belfort, The Real Wolf of Wall Street will share his life-lesson story and proven ethical selling strategies for individuals and companies to increase sales and profits. Event dates are: May 1 Vancouver | May 2 Calgary | May 12 Montreal | May 15 Toronto. See below the interview for event tickets and discount codes to save up to $100 per ticket.

Leading up to his first-time Canadian tour, Mark Chadwick, President of Financial Press and Bob Beaty, Managing Editor ask Jordan about his blockbuster movie and about the comparisons of his life, then and now. Jordan explains how his new sales seminar program can prevent you from making his mistakes but also shows you how to become a world-class salesman with the undeniable skills he has learned over a most adventurous career.

FP: Welcome Jordan. Thanks for taking the time. Let's dig right in. Have you ever been to Vancouver or Canada? As a result of your experience, do you have any sense of the differences in the sales process here versus the US?

JB: I was in Canada once when I was younger, but I've never been to Vancouver As far as a difference in sales process, it doesn't matter. Sales are sales and influence is influence. I've taught sales all over the world and fundamental rules of sales apply. That is that certain things have to line up in a person's mind before they say yes.

FP: Your experiences could be categorized as the ultimate business 'teachable moment.' What changes have resulted both personally and professionally?

JB: There's so much to learn from what I did. The ability to start from nothing and build something from scratch, something so dynamic and makes so much money for the Company and the people at the company. The secret was to take 20-something aged kids who hadn't been brought up with any empowerment. They had been conditioned for mediocrity. By constantly teaching them through daily interaction and the Straight Line System I was able to completely rewrite their beliefs about what they thought they were capable of, including the skills to bring that empowerment to reality.

I taught them the right skill set as opposed to most sales training, which is heavily motivational. Motivation without skills training becomes self-delusional.

FP:What are the characteristics you would look for if you were hiring sales people today?

JB: I would hire inexperienced sales people. One of the things I do really well is train sales people. I can take an average person with desire and turn them into a world-class salesman very quickly. I would rather mold people who become loyal, which in turn allows you to build a quality organization for the long term.

The other factor to successful sales people is the culture created by management. Taking massive amounts of drugs and having midget-pitching competitions are probably not the best way to build a corporate cultural and be on the right side of humanity as a whole.

I would do the whole thing differently. I would institute charitable pursuits, work with foundations. I would ground the culture with integrity and give value.

FP: When you were running your firm, did you ever meet a better salesman than yourself?

JB: I've never met a better salesman than me. I met some really good ones along the way and I think the top ones I've met said "I always thought I was the best salesman in the world until I met you."

FP: Considering what you have been through are you able to achieve any sort of work/life balance?

JB: It's not so much that my work/life balance was out of whack; my life was out of whack. When I was not at work, I was completely insane. I look back and I have to laugh at that aspect of my life because I was only really hurting myself. I would go out every night, do massive quantities of drugs, and did my best dating after I got married. It was not a sustainable lifestyle.

My life today is so incredibly different. Now I'm a homebody whose biggest pleasure is playing tennis every morning. When you're not doing drugs, it paves the way for a more sustainable healthy lifestyle.

FP: If you had directed the movie, what would you have done differently?

JB: There were some things on the business side that were pretty inaccurate. There were some lessons that could have been learned that weren't and I try to correct those when I speak around the world. First was when I am sitting in the restaurant, new to Wall Street and the Matthew McConaughey character offers me booze and blow. I decline and the very next scene I am in a strip club drinking and doing blow. That descent actually took 2-3 years. I would have rather seen that process take longer than 3 minutes. The next is when I walked into the penny stock firm for the first time. The manager, when my character asked him if this was legal, he responded 'sort of'. If that had happened I would have run out the door. In reality, I was told "of course its legal." People employ their own moral barometer in those situations. Just because someone says something is legal and there are licenses on the wall doesn't mean it is all true.

The other is the 'sell them NYSE stock and then sell them dog-feces' speech. If you're looking to motivate people to sell stock, you're not going to tell them they are selling dog feces. No one wants to sell dog crap. The thought that I ever said that is ridiculous. That was Marty's call (Martin Scorsese) but it did cause me some problems as it completely and wildly inaccurate. And I didn’t give anyone the finger while I was on the phone. That won't motivate a sales force.

And I never punched my wife in the stomach. Never ever happened.

FP: Where will Jordan Belfort be in five years?

JB: It's very hard to say where I will be personally. The last several months have resulted in some personal and relationship turmoil, so hard to say. And my days of running around are certainly over.

On a business level, there's no doubt that the movie has created an opportunity for me to spread a really great message around the world; particularly to empower people in numbers I could have never done before. The end of the movie was actually changed to show my new life. My message is no different than previously, just better known as a result of the movie.

I also work with entrepreneurs. My message isn't just about sales, although every person needs to learn how to sell on some level: parents, politicians, lawyers to a jury etc. Entrepreneurs need to sell their vision and communicate to empower their people.

FP: What do you want people to take away from the Straight Line System and why the name?

JB: The name came from the fact that I when I was trying to train salesmen how to close large deals with wealthy clients. They couldn't do it. And even though I was already considered one of the top sales trainers, I tried everything. So the enigma was having a group of 12 not so bright sales people trying to sell to the 1%. I was faced with a seemingly impossible task; to convince people who weren't worldly to talk to wealthy investors and successful business people.

Finally one day, out of sheer frustration, I looked at them and said, "Don't you get it?" Every sales the same, it's a straight line. I drew a long thin straight line on the board and then over the next couple of months, the system exploded out of me. Within days of refining this almost automatic writing type of developing the system, the trainees all became world-class closers. It was bizarre. If I had used that process earlier and differently, my story would have ended very differently.

FB: Thanks Jordan, we look forward to seeing you in Vancouver on May 1st as you kick off your dates here, Calgary, Toronto and Montreal.

Details and tickets are available at www.wolfofwallstreet.ca. And readers can save up to $100 per ticket with our discount codes FP20 for regular tickets and FP-VIP for VIP tickets (includes seating in 1-3 rows, signed book, photo opportunity and VIP reception).